AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU VISIT

Earlier this week, I had the unforgettable opportunity to visit Oświęcim (called Auschwitz during Nazi rule) in Poland with the Holocaust Educational Trust as part of the Lessons from Auschwitz project where participants eventually pass on the lessons learnt to the wider community in our schools/college’s. Auschwitz is widely known for being the site where at least 1.1 million people died, the majority being Jews, amongst other victims such as some Poles, Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah’s witnesses, and political prisoners from the Soviet Union. The one day visit included a trip to the site of the destroyed Great Synagogue, before making our trip to the Auschwitz-Birkenau sites.

As you step into the gates, the haunting sign of ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ hangs above your head, intended to fool political prisoners originally into thinking that it’s translation ‘Work sets you free’ was a possibility, yet in reality they were brutally taken to their death…